A key aspect of growing plants and achieving desired growing characteristics and features of the plant is the characteristics of the soil it is grown in and the nutrients, water and biological environment that the growing plant experiences. Many plants are grown in artificial soils and horticultural practices involve cultivation in soilless media. Such media are referred to with terms such as “horticultural media”, “potting soil”, compost, soil or soilless media. Media may be derived from organic materials such as peat, coconut coir, wood products, compost, manures and inorganic materials such as sand, perlite, and vermiculite
There have been many attempts to enhance and improve horticultural media to maximize growth and crop production characteristics. This can include adding, wetting agents, fertilizer nutrients, lime, gypsum, other chemicals, and biological inoculants.
Additionally, where a plant is grown to maturity in horticultural media (e.g. tomatoes, cannabis, strawberries, etc.) the costs of disposal of the used horticultural media can be significant. There is considerable interest in the potential to re-use horticulture media, but there are significant challenges and risks associated with re-use. There may be carryover of pests and diseases from one crop to the next and nutrients may become depleted or imbalanced affecting plant growth.